Payments & Stripe Setup
PayPolka lets your clients pay invoices online by credit card, ACH bank transfer, or Cash App Pay, and lets you record cash or check payments yourself. Online payments run through your own Stripe account — PayPolka adds no markup to Stripe’s fees. This page covers the one-time setup in Settings → Payments.
Connect your Stripe account
Online card, ACH, and Cash App Pay payments require a connected Stripe account. In Settings → Payments → Stripe:
- Enter your Publishable key (starts with
pk_). - Enter your Secret key (starts with
sk_). It’s encrypted at rest; leave it blank later to keep the current key. - Copy the Webhook endpoint URL shown on the page and add it as a webhook in your Stripe dashboard, then paste the Webhook signing secret (starts with
whsec_) back into PayPolka.
The webhook is what lets PayPolka know when a payment succeeds, so invoices update automatically. ACH bank transfers in particular need the webhook configured in order to clear — without it, bank transfers stay pending. Once everything’s saved, the page shows Stripe connected.
Choose which payment methods you accept
In Settings → Payments → Payment Methods, pick the default options offered on new invoices:
- Credit card
- ACH / bank transfer
- Cash App Pay
- Cash / check
Each new invoice takes a snapshot of these defaults, and you can override the allowed methods on an individual invoice before you send it.
You must enable at least one payment method before an invoice can be sent.
Cash / check instructions
If you accept cash or check, fill in the Cash / check instructions field. These instructions are shown to clients on the public invoice page (for example, where to mail a check or how to hand off cash). Cash and check are offline methods — the invoice balance only changes when you record or confirm the payment. A client can submit a “report payment sent” notice, which emails you and shows in the invoice history, but it does not mark the invoice paid on its own. See Getting paid for how that works.
Passing processing fees to clients (optional)
There’s a toggle to pass online payment processing fees to clients. When it’s on:
- The invoice total stays the same — the document amount doesn’t change.
- The processing fee is quoted on the public invoice page before the client pays and recorded on the payment.
PayPolka does not add any markup on top of Stripe’s fees; the amounts reflect Stripe’s standard processing charges. Whether to enable this is up to you and your business.
Once payments are set up, see Getting paid for what your clients see and how payments are recorded, or revisit the full Settings tour in Account settings.